Dark Woods Circus
by RuJa4EVA
Summary: Come see the Dark Woods Circus. Tonight, we'll be showing the sad fate that some of this world carry. It's the perfect place for lost little boys who are ignored by their parents. And twin brother. And everyone else in the world. Everyone but this circus
1. Chapter 1

**I don't own Hetalia. Nor do I own ****Dark Woods Circus [VOCALOID] Eng Sub. But I have watched it. And if you're reading this with no clue what that is, type it into youtube and watch the video first.**

* * *

_Ring ring!_

The sounds of horse drawn carriages, bells, and the crowd around him filled Matthew's ears. He called out into the crowd, but his voice was lost among it. No one seemed to notice him. Which was probably how he got stuck here alone in the first place. Arthur hadn't noticed him. No, not even that. Arthur had forgotten he had taken little Matthew out to the market, and apparently so had Alfred, who had always paid little attention to his younger brother. Which was why they had left without him and gone off somewhere, leaving Matthew standing in the center of a bustling crowd, all alone. Worry filled his eyes at the thought of being left here forever. No one nearby noticed his eyes fill up with tears. No one spoke to him at all. Then suddenly-

"Oh, you're here! You're here!"

Surprised, Matthew turned to the voice that had called out. A tall girl with long, platinum blonde hair smiled down at him, a smile which radiated with kindness but did not make the girl seem nice or kind. Matthew glanced to his side, wondering if the girl had been speaking to someone else. Her words sounded like she had been waiting for him, but he had never seen her before in his life. Her arm tugged at another's – a young man with a pink scarf and light beige-blond hair who was standing next to her. He suddenly turned and looked at Matthew with raised eyebrows before quickly giving him a smile as sweet and gentle as the girl's. There was something strange about the way they were standing together. It wasn't until the young man had turned towards Matthew that he realized what it was - both the girl and boy's heads were on the same body.

But no, that was absurd. Arthur had taught Matthew that things were not always what they seemed. You had to think logically. They both wore a brightly colored clown suit – one with large, ruffled cuffs and a similar collar. They must have simply been squeezed into the same suit to make it look there were two heads on one body. Clowns were always known for their grotesque humor.

"What is your name, little one?" The girl said, her smile widening as she spoke.

"Arthur says I'm…I'm not supposed to give my name to…to strangers." The girl's expression didn't change at all at this news.

"I'm Natalia. And this is my brother, Ivan." Ivan waved to Matthew, his hand holding two balloons which bobbed a bit in the air at the motion. Natalia continued at her brother's silence. "We are not strangers anymore, da?"

"I-I guess not…I'm M-Matthew." He said quietly, timidly.

"Well Matthew, I hope you'll come to our show." They both leaned down, Natalia handing him a flyer and Ivan giving him a bright red balloon, one which Matthew grasped tightly, as if it were his lifeline. He glanced at the flyer, which simply had scribbled in text reading "Welcome to Machigerita Circus" surrounding a bad drawing of a circus tent. He looked up at them in confusion.

"The Dark Woods Circus." Natalia said, nodding to the name on the flyer. "Tonight, we'll be showing the sad fate that some of this world carry. Children that God has abandoned, restlessly creeping out. Children who can't even carry the trembling limbs they were born with." Natalia's smile suddenly twitched, her eyes taking on a red shade for the briefest of seconds. Matthew's eyes widened in fear and he tensed up. Natalia continued, Matthew's terror going seemingly unnoticed.

"Their shaking tongues even accidentally cry out. The crowns of their heads that caress the dark clouds."

Matthew looked down at the picture of the seemingly harmless circus tent as Natalia spoke, concern and curiosity taking over him as he stared at it, wondering exactly what kind of circus this was.

"They smile as they dream of their mother's warm embrace. Ooh, the deformity!"

Matthew was silent as he kept staring down at the flyer, missing Natalia's change in expression.

"DEFORMITY!"

Matthew looked up in surprise at the word. But suddenly, Natalia and Ivan were gone. He looked around in confusion, catching a glimpse of them running off into the crowd, leaving footprints. Footprints of a deep red color, a color that reminded Matthew of something familiar.

Though she was nowhere near, Matthew could have sworn he heard Natalia's voice even after she ran off.

"Drop by and see him. Drop by and see him."

* * *

He didn't know why. Perhaps it was the concern that this circus was something he should report to Arthur. Or the worry of the children that were apparently inside. Or maybe it was the curiosity, the need to see if this circus was really real or not, that brought Matthew here. Here, to the dark forest on the outskirts of town, rather than back to Arthur's house.

As soon as Natalia and Ivan had left, Matthew didn't feel like finding Arthur was so important anymore. He was sure he could find his way home if he really needed to.

In fact, the first thing he had done after the shock of the whole ordeal with the strange clowns was ask a close merchant where the "dark woods" were. By the time he had reached them, the sun had set and the night had settled over the sky. And thus, he stood at the edge of the forest, wondering whether to go in or not. There were so many trees everywhere – who was to say he would be able to find the circus, if it even existed?

Yet just as he was beginning to doubt coming here, Matthew heard a voice. It was soft, but it was loud enough for him to hear it. Curious, he took a step into the forest, past the first layer of trees. The voice grew, and Matthew could faintly hear music in the distance. He followed it, slowly catching its words as the song's volume gradually increased the closer he got.

"_Deep into the forest_

_Far far in the back that way_

_There is a circus_

_With its ringmaster, wide eyed_

_and 10 meters tall."_

At last Matthew arrived at a large, red circus tent, its entrance open and revealing several rows of curtains where he guessed different things were shown. The voice continued, its source coming from somewhere inside the tent.

"_All of the cast is jolly_

_Though their forms rather strange_

_But it's so fun!_

_The Dark Woods Circus"_

A footstep behind Matthew made him whip his head around, only to come face to face with a two pairs of extremely long legs. He slowly tilted his head up to see two lean, towering figures above him. One was a girl wearing a long, deep green dress that matched her dark green eyes and went well with her long brown hair. The other wore glasses that hid his dim violet eyes, with an ahoge sticking straight up out of his brown hair. Both wore solemn expressions as they stared down at him, expressions to which Matthew gave a nervous smile, unsure what to do. They soon moved on, stepping over him and walking around for the other few patrons.

* * *

Matthew waited for a few minutes in line before realizing no one was going in. He stepped out of the clump of people and walked up to the entrance before realizing that there was no line – one could walk in or out whenever they wanted.

The people inside peered through little holes in the walls, where one could apparently look at the performers before they went into the ring. His curiosity strong as ever, Matthew ran up to first the hole, just as the voice of the song took on a dark tone. And as he looked in each hole, Matthew realized it was the performers themselves singing the song.

"_One with two heads." _Natalia sang as she and Ivan stood in a bright green room, both wearing a low-cut shirt that revealed the cuts and stitches decorating their bodies. Their two halves were shown to be sewn together. The two that Matthew had thought before as being two joking clowns were in fact two deformed people. And it was disgusting. The way Natalia smiled cruelly, dementedly and the look of pain and sadness on Ivan's face was in itself horrible. Yet the pity Matthew should have felt for them went right out the window when he saw how revolting their forms were. To think he had talked to – he had brushed hands with these creatures. He felt the need to throw up. But he resisted, and continued onto the next hole.

Inside was a person, whose gender Matthew couldn't identify, with their black hair sticking out everywhere and parting in an odd place – the side of their head. They wore a blindfold, and seemed to be chained to the wall. At first Matthew didn't realize what was wrong with them, but he slowly realized that the reason the hair was parting oddly was because a twisted horn was sticking out. His eyes widened, and slowly moved down the strange dress the person wore.

"_A deformed diva." _The person sang right as Matthew's eyes reached their legs, ones which were not that of human's, but of a deer. Its voice was lower than he expected, clearly one of a mans The thing's shoulders shook, and Matthew stumbled away from the hole, the sight of the monster crying sickening him.

He stumbled back into another hole, a wall which growled when he bumped into it. Terrified but curious, he stood on the tips of his toes, shutting one eye and looking through the new hole.

_"A beast that likes to eat dreadful things."_ It was a man with wavy brown hair, their skin pale from being in the darkness for so long. He was fastened to a chair by a belt, while his arms stayed contained in a while straight jacket. He had long fangs, sticking out from his mouth, which was the only thing Matthew could identify that would make him deformed. His eyes stared blankly, glazed over, at the table in front of him, seemingly waiting for something.

Matthew watched as the table was suddenly filled with cats. Live cats. Some were even kittens, playfully nipping at one another.

The beast's eyes suddenly darkened, and it's mouth widened into a creepy grin. A grin of a predator watching its prey. And as Matthew watched, the beast began to drool. He pulled away from the hole just in time to ear the growls of the beast and the shrieks of the cats, followed by some other ghastly snapping and crunching sounds. He shivered.

* * *

"Does anyone wish that I were alive? So undesirable am I in this body?" Behind him, Kiku heard a snarl from the beast, and not a second passed before his blindfold was removed. Natalia grinned at him from the other side of the bars. Kiku looked at her with glassy eyes, the tear streaks on his face still damp. Natalia's smile widened, finding pleasure in Kiku's pain.

"Why do you look at me like that?" Kiku whispered, his voice hoarse. Natalia simply kept smiling in response. Kiku shifted his gaze to the other head, his head resting against the bars as he looked at Ivan. "My face is rotting..."

"It's painful." Ivan finally spoke up as Kiku buried his face in his hands, nodding in agreement. "It's painful and it can't be helped."

He grasped a strand of Kiku's hair between his fingers and brought it to his lips, softly kissing it. His purple eyes shown with hatred at the pain Kiku was put through. "But still, we continue this circus…forever."

* * *

"It's fun! So fun! This circus is so fun!" Natalia waved to the crowd with Ivan, the red balloons surrounding them as they flew up in the air. The spotlight centered on Ivan and Natalia as she spoke, missing the shadow that stood behind them. "You can see it in our rotting faces, melting eyes, and festering skin."

"I want to die." Kiku cried out from his cage, his voice being lost among the sounds of the audience. The image of Ivan and Natalia's faces, Natalia's jeering expression appeared in his mind. Every day Natalia mocked him, telling him he was being a baby, that it wasn't that bad, he was just too weak. And then Ivan told him it was okay to be weak, the experience was painful. It was all just another confusion, another pain to him.

"I want to die!" Kiku called out louder, clinging to the bars of his cage and shouting as loud as his lungs would allow, hoping someone from the crowd would hear him. "Get me out of here, please!"

His knees slowly slid to the floor as he gave up. Pictures of shadows, shadows Kiku couldn't make out, and one tall figure wearing a red dress holding a Chinese fan which covered his mouth appeared in his mind. A memory. He always had flashes of his past, but could never remember enough to make sense of it. All he knew was that no one could hear him for a reason. He couldn't remember why.

"…But I feel like someone said to me, "That'll never happen." He spoke his thoughts allowed in a quiet murmur, with no one to talk to but himself.

* * *

Matthew didn't know why, but he'd come back to the hole containing the "deformed diva". Despite the person's appearance, it seemed the most human out of them all. He watched it cry out to the crowd, watched its tears flow down its face as it talked to itself. He frowned, knowing he should feel bad, feel sympathy, feel something, but the only emotion the creature evoked was disgust.

A shadow fell over him and, surprised, Matthew turned around, looking up to the source of the darkness.

His mouth opened, but never got the chance to let out a scream.

* * *

As the night sky slowly got slighter, the circus tent closed shut.

Roderich and Elizabeta danced one last dance before disappearing for the night.

* * *

**"The body is distorted in order to bend to that twisted figure."**

"Roderich, wait up!" A girl with long brown hair reached out for the taller man's hand, but he moved it away, hiding his embarrassment.

"We're going to be late, Elizabeta." He said, quickening his pace.

**"To crawl on the illuminated street with paper lanterns."**

A girl with long brown hair hid her face in the taller man's chest as they danced about a tent in the middle of the woods.

**"Everyone knows the feeling of walking down the street."**

Heracles smiled as he picked up one of his cats, nuzzling its cheek lovingly.

**"This child has to cower alone."**

The door to his cell creaked open, and the beast grinned as the scent of feline fur reached his nose.

**"I guess the shadows reach long."**

Kiku ran over to Heracles, grabbing his arm to get his attention. They laughed together, smiling widely.

**"But the friends that talk have their waists aligned."**

The person in the cage felt two hands grip his head, and smiled as he moved to place his own over them, but stopped as he touched a pointed horn at the side of his head.

**"You are later and before by yourself."**

Together Kiku and Heracles both turned as they heard footsteps approach, waving to their friends.

**"Oh, you're here, you're here!"**

Natalia pulled Ivan up the hill, laughing as they ran to join their friends.

**"Drop by and see him."**

The two-headed menagerie grinned creepily at its viewers, gripping each other's neck and resting their heads against one another.

**"Drop by and see him."**

The forest went completely dark, the lamps illuminating the circus shutting off and concealing the tent from daylight.

**"Drop by, to the Dark Woods."**

* * *

Arthur's stagecoach traveled down the cobblestone road, the British man inside it missing the little boy who looked strangely like Alfred but wasn't.

The sounds of horse drawn carriages, bells, and the crowd around him filled Matthew's ears. He called out into the crowd, but his voice was lost among it. No one seemed to notice him. He turned around as he sensed someone staring at him. He ran over to the person able to see him, the other people throughout the square not able to recognize his existence.

He reached up to the person, tugging at their shirt as his other hand tightly gripping flyers which simply had scribbled in text reading "Welcome to Machigerita Circus" surrounding a bad drawing of a circus tent. He smiled at them, his red dress and rose headband heightening his cuteness. Suddenly his smiled widened, his eyes narrowing slightly and going from a light blue to a deep, dark red. His cheek showed the mark of a burn which hadn't been there before.

**"It's fun."**

* * *

**Okay, I think it's necessary to clear some things up here.**

**Circus Characters:**

**Two-headed freak: Russia and Belarus**

**Deformed Diva: Japan**

**Beast: Greece**

**Dancers: Austria and Hungary**

**Someone who said to Japan "That'll never happen.": China**

**If you don't know what this is from, I'd highly suggest watching Dark Woods Circus [VOCALOID] Eng Sub. A comment from Freaknessism about this circus and real life:**

"**Children are kidnapped, and deformed into freaks. For example, they could crush their bones so they grew together wrong, slice things of and more, and the children** **were also used for sexual services.**

**And if they said no, or tried to escape, they got acid pour in their faces. That's what the flowers in the video stands for."**

**The burn mark on Canada was from the acid. Also, I didn't include this, but all the characters had acid marks on their face in the video. Some were even covered in them.**


	2. Sequel

I'm making a sequel to this which includes the whole DWC storyline.

Aka

Steel Cage Princess

Wide Knowledge of the Late Madness

Dark Woods Circus (done)

Blue Ice Castle

Red Swamp Bottom

Guard and Scythe

Keep an eye on my account's fanfics (or just add me to your Author alert) to see the sequel to this!


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